Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman told Voice of Israel public radio, “Once again, Europe has ignored calls for Israel’s destruction. We’ve already seen this at the end of the 1930s and at the beginning of the 1940s when Europe knew what was happening in the concentration camps and didn’t act… Europe has slapped itself in the face… When Jews are sacrificed, you have to ask yourself who will be next. In Toulouse, the terrorist who killed Jewish children also killed French soldiers… Terrorism attacks Jews but it targets all countries and Western values. Israel is just an hors d’oeuvre… Hamas calls for Israel’s destruction and refused to recognize Israel and Abu Mazen (Mahmoud Abbas) supports this position while Europe stays quiet.”

There is no denying the validity of Minister Lieberman’s references to the comments made recently by Hamas Leader Khaled Meshal in a speech during his first trip to Gaza this past Saturday where he was speaking to tens of thousands of supporters at a celebration of the twenty-fifth anniversary of the founding of Hamas. Speaking with great emotion and fury to an aroused and euphoric crowd, Meshal exclaimed, “The state will come from resistance, not negotiation, Liberation first, then statehood. Palestine is ours from the river to the sea and from the south to the north. There will be no concession on any inch of the land. There will be no concession on any inch of the land.” He vowed that all Palestinian refugees and their descendants would one day return to their original homes inundating Israel leading to forcing an Arab majority within Israel and thus ending Jewish rule. He went further with this denunciation of Israel claiming, “We will never recognize the legitimacy of the Israeli occupation, and therefore there is no legitimacy for Israel, no matter how long it will take. We will free Jerusalem inch by inch, stone by stone. Israel has no right to be in Jerusalem.” Among his further remarks was included promises that Palestinian prisoners in Israeli prisons would be freed using the same methods previously utilized; the kidnapping of Israelis and Israeli soldiers, such as Gilad Shalit who was released in a prisoner exchange after five years being held by Hamas, the PRC (Popular Resistance Committees) and other terror units as a hostage.

There can be no doubts that Meshal’s speech received not only no denunciations, but he was not even accused of making things more difficult and unhelpful in reaching the “two state solution” though over the weekend the Israeli plans to build homes in the suburbs of Jerusalem were condemned as such. Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman was actually relatively kind in his only pointing out the silence of the leadership in Europe as there was no comment by anyone anywhere making even the mildest of rebukes at the hateful threats and accusations made by Hamas’s Khaled Meshal. There was silence from the United States State Department who too were busy condemning the proposed construction of housing for Israelis around Jerusalem. The United States President and all his spokespeople and members of his administration had nary a comment of criticism of Meshal, though there had been disapproval made about Israeli housing plans around Jerusalem. The European Union as well as each and every member state were noticeable only by their complete silence over Meshal’s hateful language but the European Union did hold a meeting in which they took the time to accuse Israel of destroying any possibility of the realization of the “two state solution” due to announced plans to construct houses in the E1 areas near Jerusalem. Then there was the fact that the United Nations found themselves still way too busy condemning Israeli building plans and the end of chances for peace between Israel and the Palestinians despite their brave forging ahead granting the PLO statehood recognition to notice or mention the hatred and threats spewing forth from Gaza against Israel, every inch of Israel. I could continue going continent to continent, country to country, people in leadership position throughout the globe, and the sole comments that mentioned any disapproval of the vitriolic words uttered by Khaled Meshal in Gaza were restricted to Israelis. I could also list all the people and newspaper articles and editorials that cast Israel as the scourge to peace in the Middle East by their devious plans to construct evil housing for Israeli citizens, some of which will likely be Jewish, in completely vacant land that has not seen human habitation in recorded history but that would take pages and you would very likely not read it all anyway.

It is worth mentioning that Mahmoud Abbas while not mentioning Khaled Meshal, his speech, or even his historic visit to Gaza (Hamas’s and the wire services’ descriptor, not mine) but President Abbas did mention the time was ripe for seeking to unify the PLO, Fatah and the Palestinian Authority with Hamas and the other forces in Gaza so that there would be a unified Palestinian society which would facilitate the full realization of the recognized establishment of the Palestinian state. He also denounced the Israeli building plans threatening to take the issue before the ICC (International Criminal Court) as this was now an option due to the recognition given he and the Palestinians by the United Nations, but I remember many in Europe promising to condemn Abbas should he threaten such and have not heard a peep from anyone about his plans. Guess the Europeans are really good at minding their own and Israel’s business and that is their limit. Fates forbid they make even the slightest criticism of anything to do with the Palestinians. Mind you, there are those in Europe who are capable of taking a brave stance, and they can be found in the Czech Republic who was the only European country to vote “Nay” in the United Nations General Assembly when granting the elevated and soon to prove dangerous and unprecedented recognition of the Palestinians as a Non-Voting Observer State.

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